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It's always more fun to DIY. Every week, we'll spare you a trip to the grocery store and show you how to make small batches of great foods at home.

Today: If you ever thought crumpet was just a funny word for English muffin, think again. Izy Hossack from Top With Cinnamon is illuminating the difference between the two breakfast breads and sharing a recipe for a proper British crumpet.

Although crumpets and English muffins are often mistaken for the same thing, they are two completely different breakfast breads.

English muffins, made from a dough which is rolled, cut, browned on the stove, and finished in the oven, have a light, soft texture. Crumpets, on the other hand, are made with a batter that’s akin to what you'd get if you mixed bread dough and pancake batter and left out the eggs. This batter is then cooked in a frying pan using ring molds until tiny bubbles appear. Each crumpet gets flipped and browned on the other side, resulting in a chewy texture and a crisp outer layer.

One more important difference: English muffins are split and toasted before being eaten. Crumpets are toasted whole (traditionally over a fire, but a toaster is just as good) and eaten warm, normally slathered with salted butter and honey or marmite. The cratered surface means that whatever you top them with permeates the whole crumpet, creating melty pockets of goodness.

Stir together the milk, water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and let sit everything sit for 5 minutes.

Add the flour and salt to the yeast mixture, then beat the batter together with a wooden spoon until it’s completely smooth, about 5 minutes. (The mixture will be similar in texture to a thick pancake batter or a sourdough starter.)

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and leave somewhere warm for 1 1/2 hours. The batter will look bubbly when it’s ready.

In a small bowl, stir together the baking powder, baking soda, and water. Immediately pour this into the large bowl of batter and stir until it’s completely combined. Set aside for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Meanwhile, use a pastry brush to grease a few chef rings with vegetable oil. Lightly oil a large non-stick frying pan and place the ring molds in the pan, leaving some space between them. (I fit two 3-inch and two 2-inch rings into my pan.)

Set the pan over a medium-low heat.

Scoop the batter into the rings in the pan. (I used about 1/4 cup of batter for the 3-inch rings and a little less for the 2-inch rings.)

Cook the batter in the rings for 8 to 15 minutes, until the surface of the batter looks opaque, dry, and quite bubbly. Don't be alarmed if the batter starts to pull away from the sides of the rings.

Use a butter knife to loosen the crumpets from the rings. Then, remove the rings from the pan using kitchen tongs and use a spatula to flip the crumpets. Cook the crumpets until golden brown on both sides.

Serve hot, straight from the pan, or let them cool on a wire rack and reheat them later in the toaster. Eat warm with salted butter, honey, and a strong cup of English tea.

Passionate about cakes, roasted vegetables and anything involving Maldon salt or maple syrup. Izy is a student living in London, UK who spends her spare time blogging and rambling on topwithcinnamon.com

These look incredible Izzy! I've never made homemade crumpets but being English, I adore them and I've been eating them since I was tiny. I always assumed that they were ridiculously difficult to make. You've taught me otherwise... definitely going to try this on the weekend! x

Would tend to eat clotted cream with scones but can't see any reason why you wouldn't put jam on them. Come to think of it I have put crunchy peanut butter and salami (not at the same time :)) on them too.

You can use a tuna can! Remove the top and bottom of a tuna can using a can opener. Remove the label and rinse the can thoroughly.Dry it off then use it like you would the chef's rings. Otherwise simply shaped, metal cookie cutters will work if they're deep enough.

I've never worked with gluten-free flour mixes and I know that different brands are made up of different flours so I can't really advise too much about it, sorry! If you've had success substituting a certain mix for flour with other yeasted recipes then it may work. The crumpet batter is sort of like a pancake batter so I guess that it is possible that it'd work if you'd had success using the gluten-free mix for pancake recipes.

The June 2014 issue of Cooks Illustrated has a longish article about making a yeasted pizza dough with gluten-free flour mixes. Lots of helpful information about reasons why things work or not, and types of gluten-free flours available.

I've done this many of times (I'm a crumpet fiend) and the results work very very well -- in fact, I'd say even better because of the slow fermentation/retardation you get a ton of extra flavor. Just make sure to let it come up to temp. again (1 hour) before continuing ...

Thanks for the clarification - I guess I was confused as to why the recipe called for a 1/4 cup of boiling water as well as an additional 1 tablespoon of boiling water. Is the total amount you mix with the baking soda and power 1/4 + 1Tbsp of boiling water?

ahh I see! The 1/4 cup of boiling water is mixed with the cold water to make lukewarm water which is added to the batter. The extra tablespoon is what gets mixed with the raising agents so that it's easier to mix them into the batter